And the Oscar goes to…?

Frances McDormand in Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri, a favourite to take the Best Picture Oscar, as is McDormand for the Best Actress award.

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BY BILLY SUTER

THERE were many red faces at last year’s Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, when actors Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway made a monumental faux pas by incorrectly announcing La La Land as the winner of the Best Picture award, when in fact the statuette was supposed to have gone to Moonlight.

Many people will be tightly holding thumbs no more embarrassing mistakes are made at 3am South African time tomorrow, Monday (March 5), with the live broadcast of the 90th Academy Awards ceremony from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Outstanding achievement in 24 categories will be rewarded at the ceremony which is to be hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel for the second year in a row, making him the first person to host consecutive ceremonies since Billy Crystal did so in 1997 and 1998.

M-Net Movies (channel 104) is scheduled to screen the awards from 3am on Monday, March 5, following red carpet coverage, and the ceremony will be repeated on M-Net (channel 101) at 9pm on Monday, March 5.

Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water, which wins this writer’s vote for the Best Picture Oscar.

The nine movies in the running for the Best Picture award this year, in alphabetical order, are Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, The Shape of Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

This year sees Meryl Streep once again topples her own record, securing her 21st Oscar nomination for acting (for The Post). She was first nominated for an Oscar in 1978, for The Deer Hunter, and has since had 17 Best Actress nominations and four for supporting roles. Streep has won two Best Actress Oscars – for Sophie’s Choice (1983) and The Iron Lady (2012) – and one Best Supporting Actress award for Kramer vs Kramer (1980).

Interestingly, Great Garwig has become only the fifth woman nominated for the award for directing, for her work on Lady Bird. She is the first woman nominated in this category since Kathryn Bigelow took the golden statuette in 2010, for The Hurt Locker.

A scene from the novel Loving Vincent, nominated for Best Animated Feature.

……………….Interesting Academy Awards facts for the trivia-hungry………………

Only three films have won a record 11 Oscars – Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King (2003).

No men have won a Best Actor Oscar for a debut screen role, but four women have won the Best Actress statuette for their first time on screen – Shirley Booth (Come Back, Little Sheba, 1952); Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, 1964); Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl, 1968). and partially deaf actress Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God, 1986).

Walt Disney has taken 22 Oscars – the most for an individual – and the woman with the most wins is the late Edith Head. She took eight Oscars for costume design.

Wikipedia reports that the most competitive awards won by a person who is still living is composer Alan Menken (eight Academy Awards).

Katharine Hepburn has won a record four awards for Best Actress; Daniel Day-Lewis leads the Best Actor category with three wins; and John Ford holds the record for directing, with four Oscar wins.

Cedric Gibbons, who designed the golden Oscar award, won 11 awards out of a total of 39 nominations for art direction.

The golden boy…

France is the country with the most nominations for the statuette for foreign language film, and has taken the award a dozen times.

Heath Ledger and Peter Finch are the only actors to be awarded an Academy Award posthumously, for The Dark Knight (2008) and Network (1976), respectively.

The first 3D movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar was Avatar (2009) and the first – and only – animated movie to be nominated for the Best Picture statuette was Beauty and the Beast (1991).

Tatum O’Neal with her father Ryan O’Neal in Paper Moon, from 1973. Tatum, then aged 10, became the youngest winner of an Oscar for acting.

The youngest winner of an acting award was Tatum O’Neal. At age 10 she took the award for best supporting actress, for 1973’s Paper Moon.

The oldest Oscar-winner is Christopher Plummer, who was 82 when he took the best supporting actor Oscar for the 2011 drama, Beginners.

Wikipedia reports that the longest performance to win the award for Best Actress is by Vivien Leigh – for 1939’s Gone With the Wind: two hours, 23 minutes and 32 seconds.

The movie with the most Oscars without winning the Best Picture award is Cabaret. It took eight Oscars in 1972. By contrast, Grand Hotel (1932) took the Best Picture Oscar, the only award for which it was nominated.

Most awards by a black actor? Denzel Washington has two – Best Actor for Training Day (2001) and Best Supporting Actor for Glory (1989).

The longest Oscar speech was that given by Greer Garson at the 15th awards ceremony. After she was named as best actress for 1942 for Mrs Miniver, her speech ran for nearly six minutes. Hence the limit of 45 seconds now – and tune-prompting if you go over that limit.

Comedian and actor Bob Hope holds the record for hosting the Oscars. He hosted the ceremony 19 times between 1940 and 1978.